Romeo & Juliet

Some days, like a hot burst of morning breath, you know it’s going to be a bad day before it even hits. Other days you’re just blindsided.

Today was one of those blindsided days. Today I had to tell two young kids that they had to end a relationship because it was the adult thing to do.

How do you face a couple of kids who are totally in love, look them in the eyes and tell them that because of the adult choices they made they have to face the adult consequences? How do you tell them that they’re too young to understand that the odds are, even though they have something special, that it’s likely that it would have never worked out the way they think it will right now? That they will grow older and they will grow wiser and they will want to be with other people and their broken hearts will heal? How do you do that and still feel good about yourself?

How do you convince them that this happened to you too and you were also hurt? That you were on their side of the fence 15 years ago? How do you get them to realize you’re right when you’re asking them to willingly go against their own hearts? How do you convince them that they have to look inside their hearts and separate what feels good from what they know is right and make the harder choice?

How do you continue to stand your ground when they burst into tears and they tell you, with all of the hope in their heart, that maybe things will blow over and in a couple of months they can be together and happy again? How do you absorb all of their pain and still tell them no?